Inhibition of return can be associated with object identity but not with object category

After a sudden onset peripheral cue, processing of targets at the cued location can be inhibited; this is known as Inhibition of Return (IOR). Previous work has shown that IOR can be associated with an object's identity, and that this identity-based inhibition can be retrieved from memory when the object is re-encountered (Tipper, Grison, & Kessler, 2003). The current experiments engage two issues: First, can the identity specific IOR effect be confirmed in a new procedure? And second, can IOR be associated with an object's basic-level category? Either identical objects, objects in the same basic-level category, or unrelated objects were presented. On the first two presentations of an object, attention was oriented to the left or right of the object using an exogenous cue. Then on the third presentation, a target requiring a rapid localisation response appeared on the left or right. The interval between the second cue and the target was either short (3 s and no intervening objects) or long (21 s and 5 intervening objects). Results confirmed that IOR can be associated with an object's identity, and that this identity specific IOR can be retrieved from memory. In contrast, there was no evidence that IOR could be associated with an object's basic-level category.